Case Study
View Case StudyTray.ai
Migrating hundreds of thousands of pages, re-platforming and extending for the leading composable AI integration platform
From Tina CMS to Kentico
We are the Tina CMS to Kentico migration experts
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Challenges with Tina CMS
Key pain points
Tina's biggest limitation is that it's fundamentally tied to the React ecosystem. If you want visual editing, you need a React-based framework like Next.js. Basic content editing works with Astro, Hugo, SvelteKit, and others, but the flagship visual experience is React-only. There's been talk of Vue support for years, but nothing has materialised. This is a hard blocker for agencies like us that work across different tech stacks. The platform has also had a notable history: SSW acquired the project in May 2024, and a security breach in late 2024 involved compromised AWS keys via the CI/CD pipeline. These events, combined with the relatively small community, are worth weighing when evaluating Tina for long-term enterprise projects.
On the practical side, developers report frustrating instability in the dev environment. The admin interface can break without any changes to your codebase because it depends on externally loaded assets that update independently. Error handling is weak — forms fail to save silently, and the GraphQL layer doesn't surface errors cleanly. Self-hosting removes the TinaCloud dependency but comes with its own gaps: no search functionality, no Git LFS support, and reference fields can timeout on large collections.
The editing experience, while impressive in demos, can feel fragile in production. Multiple developers have reported losing work in the editor, and features like branch-based editing are locked behind paid tiers. For agencies managing multiple client projects, the React-only constraint and relatively small community (compared to Sanity, Strapi, or Contentful) mean fewer resources, fewer integrations, and more time spent solving problems yourself.
Visual editing limited to React
TinaCMS supports many frameworks including Astro, Hugo, Jekyll, SvelteKit, and Nuxt for basic content editing. However, the visual/inline editing experience, which is Tina's main selling point, only works with React-based frameworks like Next.js.
Unstable development environment
The dev server can break unpredictably because it loads external assets that change independently of your codebase. This makes local development feel unreliable and hard to debug.
Poor error handling and silent failures
Forms can fail to save without any visual indicator, and GraphQL errors aren't surfaced clearly. Losing work without warning is a real risk, especially for content editors.
Branch editing requires paid tier
Multi-branch support isn't available out of the box — it's locked behind the paid editorial workflow feature. You can't test content changes in deploy previews without paying up.
Self-hosting gaps
The self-hosted backend lacks search functionality, Git LFS support, and pagination on reference fields. Large collections can cause network timeouts.
Small ecosystem
Compared to established players like Sanity or Contentful, Tina has a smaller community and fewer plugins. Since the SSW acquisition in May 2024, the project has been actively maintained with regular releases, but the ecosystem is still catching up.
Benefits of Kentico
Key advantages
If Corporate Memphis art, dashboards, and spreadsheets are what you need, Kentico might be your happy place. The interface feels like Microsoft Office; that is, it is familiar, editor-friendly, and hard to break. And unlike platforms that need 14 plugins and a prayer, Kentico ships with the whole toolkit. It has marketing automation, e-commerce, workflows, multisite, multilingual, and the entire lot.
It scales well, handles heavy enterprise workloads, and integrates cleanly through APIs. But it is not the right fit for tiny brochure sites, but for large organizations that want everything under one roof, it’s a serious contender. If you’re unsure whether you really need the full armoury, send it our way and we’ll tell you if you’re ready for Kentico or if you’re just buying a tank to deliver pizza.
User-friendly interface
Kentico’s UI feels familiar with “Office toolbar,” like functions, rather than “developer terminals.” Editors can publish, schedule, and update content without needing a developer on standby.
Built in tools
You don’t need to glue together 12 plugins just to run campaigns or sell products. Kentico ships with automation, personalization, analytics, and e-commerce baked in.
Flexible API and extensibility options
If your team speaks .NET, Kentico supports it. Its APIs and integration options make it easier to connect CRMs, ERPs, BI tools, and custom services without duct-tape engineering.
Workflow and role management system
It has multiple approvers, granular permissions, and strict publishing rules. Legal, marketing, and IT can all sign off without stepping on each other.
Fast onboarding + safe staging
Training is quick, publishing is simple, and staging environments keep mistakes from going live. Teams can work confidently without “oops, wrong button” moments.
Headless-ready
If you want speed, security, and headless flexibility, Kentico delivers. Content moves fast, scales well, and supports multi-site or multilingual setups without falling over.
Common questions
Tina CMS to Kentico migration FAQs
Answers to the most common questions about Tina CMS to Kentico migration
How do we migrate content out of Tina CMS?
Tina stores content as markdown and MDX files in your Git repository, which makes extraction the easiest part of any CMS migration we do. Your content is already files on disk. The work is in transforming those markdown files into the structured format your new CMS expects. Rich text blocks, custom components embedded in MDX, and frontmatter fields all need mapping. For a blog or docs site with 100 to 500 pages, we typically complete the migration in 2 to 4 weeks.
Why are teams leaving Tina CMS?
Three issues come up repeatedly. First, the React-only constraint for visual editing blocks teams that want to use Astro, SvelteKit, or other frameworks. Second, the development environment is unstable. The admin interface loads external assets that update independently of your codebase, so it can break without you changing anything. Third, the 2024 security breach involving compromised AWS keys shook confidence in the platform's operational maturity. Teams with enterprise compliance requirements found that hard to overlook.
Is it worth self-hosting Tina instead of migrating away?
Self-hosting removes the TinaCloud dependency, but it introduces its own gaps. There's no search functionality, no Git LFS support, and reference fields timeout on large collections. If you're already frustrated with Tina's instability, self-hosting adds more operational burden rather than solving the root problems. We've found that teams considering self-hosted Tina are usually better served by migrating to a platform with proper managed hosting and a more mature editorial experience.
How much does a Kentico migration typically cost?
Kentico migrations are enterprise-scale projects. For a site with 1,000 to 10,000 pages, expect the migration itself to run 8 to 16 weeks of development time. The cost depends on how deeply you've customised Kentico's marketing automation, e-commerce, and workflow features. Simple content-only migrations are faster, but most Kentico installations have years of custom .NET logic that needs to be rebuilt or replaced. We've seen total migration budgets range from $30,000 to $150,000 depending on scope, which still often pays for itself within 18 months through reduced licensing and maintenance costs.
Why are companies migrating away from Kentico?
Licensing costs are the initial trigger for most conversations we have. Kentico's annual fees add up fast, especially when you include maintenance, hosting, and the cost of .NET developers to keep it running. But the deeper issue is agility. Major version upgrades introduce breaking changes that can destabilise sites with years of custom logic. The admin UI feels dated as projects scale. Multi-tenant setups carry real risk since one bad customisation can take down every site in the cluster. Teams eventually decide the operational overhead isn't worth it.
What's the biggest challenge when migrating from Kentico?
Untangling the all-in-one features. Kentico bundles marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, workflows, and content management into one platform. When you migrate away, each of those capabilities needs a new home. Content goes to your new CMS, email automation might move to a tool like Resend or Customer.io, and e-commerce might need a dedicated platform. We map out every feature your team actually uses before writing a single migration script, because the biggest risk is discovering a dependency mid-project that nobody documented.
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